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Commentary

Injury prevention warmup programs work: Use One!

I'm a big believer in using warmup-based training programs as part of the overall effort to reduce the numbers of injuries in athletes. I’ve previously written about the FIFA 11+ and we include videos with support from Dr. Bert Mandelbaum in our Sideline Sports Doc injury recognition course for coaches. The early evidence about the FIFA 11+ showed dramatic reductions in many types of lower
extremity injuries in soccer with no downside.

Over time, additional positive evidence has surfaced. In Europe, the FIFA 11+ has
been used in sports outside soccer such as basketball, and some new training methods have also been developed. A study published
in September 2016 in the American Journal of Sports Medicine came to one solid conclusion: these training methods are effective in reducing injury rates for adolescent athletes in a variety of
sports, and teams would be wise to implement one of these.

The study is a “meta analysis,” where results from several studies are
pooled and statistically analyzed for quality and strength of the evidence. Ten independently produced studies were analyzed. The pooled results demonstrated a significant injury rate reduction with
the use of injury prevention programs vs. control interventions overall.

Interestingly, basketball/team handball experienced a greater injury rate reduction with injury prevention programs
than in soccer. Non-FIFA11+ programs experienced a larger injury reduction rate than FIFA11+ programs. But results for all the programs were impressive.

Here are some of the key findings:• Five of the included studies used the FIFA11+ injury prevention program, while the remaining five studies investigated generic programs with warm-up, stretching, strengthening, and balance
board exercises.• Injury prevention programs were associated with a statistically significant 40% reduction in injury rate over a total of 756,461 training and match exposure hours when
compared to control groups.• Team andball/basketball experienced a 51% reduction in injury rate with injury prevention programs vs. control while a 30% reduction was observed in soccer.• Non-FIFA11+ programs were associated with a 48% reduction in injury rate compared to control while FIFA11+ programs demonstrated a 32% reduction in injury rate.

The results of this
study suggest that the consistent use of injury prevention programs can help to reduce the risk of injury in adolescents competing in team sports. Further research is necessary to dig deeper into the
possible differences of the training programs by sport, but overall I would have to say that all of the programs showed large reductions in injury rates.

The improvements are so large with
essentially no downside that I think every youth sport organization should be recommending one of these for their members.

Search your
local sport organization or children’s hospital for programs you can use; there are quite a few in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. If you live in the New York City area I like the Hospital For Special Surgery’s Sports Safety Program, and the downloadable FIFA 11+ can be found HERE. FIFA TV YouTube exercise videos can be found HERE.

Bottom line: injury prevention programs are effective in
reducing injury rates for adolescent athletes. Find one and use one.

Key Points: • Warmup-based injury prevention programs such as the FIFA 11+
and others show a dramatic reduction in injury rates for young athletes.• The results are so impressive that I believe all youth sport organizations should recommend one of these
warmup-based injury prevention programs for their young athletes.

This is good but it leaves out the fundermentals of what can quickly cause some injuries regardless of how much stretching one does.. and that's correcting eating.. the player must reduce sugar intake and increase potassium intake, this basically helps reduce the amount of acid that is associated with damage limbs like hamstrings injury.. Sometimes it's good to take a hint from runners.. in addition one must watch out for muscle fatigue this can come into play from coaches that loves train hard like the great one Zidane who is now realizing that hard coaching every day creates muscle fatigue and risk players getting injured..

Great article and the need for a proper warm up can never be stressed enough. One thing I would like to see researched is the changes in warm up needed for girls versus boys. As girls enter their teenage years they undergo some dramatic changes that seems to make them more prone to ACL injuries. In fact, most reports say girls are 3 to 9 times more likely to sustain an ACL injury. In addition, I think club coaches to a poor job of advising the proper cleats to be worn for their playing surface. Reports show wearing "traditional cleats" on turf increase the likelihood of AC: injuries. Check out this article for more information: http://soccerhotspot.com/how-to-avoid-knee-injuries-on-turf-research-says-its-in-the-shoes/